che vs chefe, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“che” is an intj and “chefe” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,600
“che” frequency rank: #752
“chefe” frequency rank: 12352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	che	chefe
Definition	para expressar desprezo ou que se duvida da verdade do que se esta a ouvir	pessoa que se destaca pelas qualidades de autoridade, competência, poder de decisão etc

Letter map: che vs chefe

Shared letters muted; letters that set che and chefe apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch

che

5 ch

chefe

Grammar separator: che vs chefe

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: che is anintj and chefeanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “che” sits inside “chefe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

che is recorded at frequency rank #11,600, classified as anintj. chefe is at rank #752, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɛ.fɨ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 12352, this pair ranks #60,277 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of che vs chefe

Shared letters: ceh. Private to "che": -. Private to "chefe": f.

"che" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "chefe" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

chefe ← cchefe · cehfe · cheef · cheffe · chfee · chhefe · hcefe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "che" and "chefe" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "che" is an intj and "chefe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "che" or "chefe"?

"chefe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #752 in our Portuguese list, against #11,600 for "che". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "che" and "chefe".

Full dictionary entry for "che" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "chefe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #60,277 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"che" and "chefe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "che vs chess". Nearby pair
Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #60,277 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.